What Cooking Magazines do you read?

I don't subscribe to any right now, I pick up the free magazine from our Raley's supermarket though. Not a bad publication, but of course it's goal is to get you to buy their products.

When I do subscribe, it's usually for one year. I just get tired of too much information to assimilate. I have enjoyed Gourmet and Taste of Home. Talk about polar differences! I liked them both for different purposes. Used to subscribe to, I think it's name was Cuisine. I really enjoyed that because they had step-by-step pictures and descriptions for cooking. I saved the first year for my daughter when she moves away. The others I clip recipes from and throw the bulk away. I tape clipped recipes on pages in a binder. One binder for recipes to try and a sturdier one for tried and true.

I recently bought the Good Food Magazine Christmas Vegetarian edition. On the whole I 'd rather spend a bit more and get a cookbook. The Guardian Weekend magazine on Saturdays often has scrummy recipies in

I am currently subscribing to Gourmet, but I have to say that I liked it much more years ago, now I find it too much 'nouvelle cuisine'. I also like The magazine of La Cucina Italiana, the American version of the Italian monthly by the same name, full of wonderful (and authentic) Italian recipes.

I forgot to mention Western Sunset Magazine. I usually found their recipes interesting and doable. And they had gardening and travel.

I love Cooking Light, but there are SO many ads. Every right-hand page is an ad! I ended up cancelling my subscription because of the aggravation of weeding thru the ads. Now I just wait for the book compilations to come out, and buy those, or borrow the mags from the library.

Good Housekeeping used to have a column -- what was it called, was full of cooking tips... Mildred Ying wrote it. Gosh I learned alot from her! Did she retire from the magazine, does anyone know?

I used to love Woman's Day's recipes before they reformatted a few years back; now the magazine is so glossy I don't read it.

Cooks Illustrated is absolutely a great publication plus their cookbooks are also very good. No advertisements and lots of tips in addition to several great recipes in depth every issue. Quite a few of their recipes have made it into our regular rotation. Also The Artful Eater by Edward Behris a great book and also a good quarterly publication.

I'm a pretty prickly customer when it comes to food writing. I have over the years subscribed to Gourmet, Saveur, Cooks Illustrated, Italian Cucina (I can never remember the name of it though I subscribed for years and years but that's close), Taste of Home, Cooking Light, Sunset Magazine (does this count?), King Arthur's Baking Sheet and Food Arts.

I've never been entirely satisfied with any of these. Gourmet has suffered enormously under Ruth Reichl, I think. I hate the glossy, trendy look of the magazine and, frankly, I have too often caught them out in errors and omissions to take them too seriously. I actually CANCELLED my subscription when they ran an article on blinis that was a couple pages long but that never once called them by name - calling them "Russian Pancakes" instead.

Saveur is a great magazine when it's covering cultures I'm interested in reading about. I wish I could say I was more global in my interests, but I'm not. I simply don't have time between my other interests, my restaurant and my family. But I have to say that the food travel writing has been consistently wonderful.

Cook's Illustrated is a very mixed bag, indeed. I subscribed in their first two years and have checked in on them from time-to-time ever since. The first few years they were pretty error-prone. My biggest complaint is that often they run so far afield of the original concept of whatever dish they subject to their test-kitchen process that the dish really isn't the dish they started out to make. What I actually really like about them is their coverage of kitchen equipment and ingredients. I've never gone wrong with a purchase made at their suggestion.

I let the Italian Cucina subscription lapse because they got a bit too repetitive for me. Also a bit too much like a chamber-of-commerce brochure. Still, they are a WONDERFUL resource for trends and history of Italian cookery.

Taste of Home is so much fun. I've never cooked anything from it but it has to be said that for "country" (whitetrash? redneck?) cooking, there are relatively few cans or boxes opened. They advocate fresh ingredients simply prepared and there is nothing wrong with that. I miss the profiles of the 1000 "field editors" that they used to have. Also I miss, defiantly, the frequently inaccurate cooking advice dispensed by their expert. I keep meaning to renew this one.

Cooking Light and Sunset I love to read in the bathroom. We've had subscriptions to these thanks to my partner's parents for a decade now.

The King Arthur Flour Baking Sheet is one that I'll never let lapse. It's a treasure. If you don't get it, you should.

Food Arts is an addled, dopey food trade publication that never seems to fail to be about a year behind the most interesting food trends. I still get it. Mostly for the gossip. The recipes are pretty much an afterthough.

mcglothlen,
The King Arthur Flour Baking Sheet is one that I'll never let lapse. It's a treasure. If you don't get it, you should

Is it a publication? Where would I get it? Thanks!

I subscribed to Imbibe earlier this year and devour each issue as it arrives. It isn't exactly a cooking magazine, but a food-related one nonetheless, covering all things drinkable--coffee, tea, beer, spirits, cocktails, wine, and everything inbetween.

And I just managed to quote their blurb from memory!

There are lots of recipes and recommendations for drinks and products for making/enjoying them and where to go to enjoy or order them (lots of online shops).

mcglothlen, I recently signed up for Cook's Illustrated after going though all their cookbooks at the library; I hope they are less of a mixed-bag nowadays!

Sorry I didn't respond right away, aluvalibri!

Here's the URL:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/landing.jsp?go=BakingSheet

You'll not regret it!

Thank you, mcglothlen!

Cuisine magazine.
It's a NZ magazine and v. expensive to source in Australia. (sigh). I really regret gifting 5yrs of issues to a friend when I switched countries. Even though I knew they'd be loved and were just too much weight to ship.

>1 MrsLee: was this the same magazine you used to read in the US?

The recipes are superb but their photography... I've described the magazine to chef friends here as 'food porn', if that helps.

Their website www.cuisine.co.nz is also excellent, particularly the after work meal maker - if you don't want to leave the house again for the supermarket, just enter in ingredients already from your fridge and it brings back matching recipes. Love it!

(sorry if this is too over the top but I've loved this magazine and their work for years)

#12 - You made me curious enough to unload all the junk off the top of my cedar chest where I had these stored. Achoo! Lots of dust. Guess we know what I should be doing instead of playing here. :)

Anyway, the name of the magazine is August Home's Cuisine, an Illustrated guide to Creative Home Cooking. Published bi-monthly by August Home Publishing Company Des Moines, IA. My issues are from 1997, and yes, I would call them 'food porn'. *slurp* Lots of step-by-step pictures for new techniques and an article on some cooking utensil or other. Now that I dug these out, I may have to read them again.

#13 - Your Cuisine magazine is different from the NZ magazine.

Sorry for causing dust bunny migration in the home.
On the bright side, think of all those old friend recipes just waiting to be read and cooked. *grin*

I read Saveur pretty regularly, although I don't usually cut articles from it.

#14 - The problem is, I'm afraid those dust bunnies mated with the ones under the couch. Now I'm really in trouble! :D

Sometimes I buy a Cooking Light magazine but usually I just use recipes out of regular magazines like womens day and Good housekeeping

I subscribe to Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Cook's Illustrated, and Food and Wine. On a slow month, I probably have time to look at the photos in a couple of them. If I need to think about what to make and how to make it, I generally end up turning to the internet. Nevertheless, I keep renewing my subscriptions.

(Did I hear somebody say early retirement? Please?)

oh yes i love the internet for recipes!

The one food magazine that I have actually renewed a subscription on, and in fact have given as gifts as well, is EatingWell, which I find has consistently good recipes that are healthy, but yummy as well, and a lot of other good info, and the most gorgeous covers - their cookbooks are fantastic as well.

I also like to splurge and buy Olive (a British publication) when I'm feeling flush...

My wife subscribes to Real Simple, and we've gotten some great and easy recipies from that. We recently were given a subscription to Bon Appetite (sp?) and we've come up with a couple good things there, but most of that is a bit higher-end than we tend to prefer.

Hi all -- Let's see, right now I'm receiving Cooking Light, Gourmet and Bon Appetit. Fine Cooking is another good one -- it goes really in-depth on a particular technique in each issue and they thoroughly test and review different cookware and utensils. I used to get Real Simple but wasn't too happy with their most recent recipes, so I let that one lapse. If you are pressed for time The Week (a news magazine) picks a different recipe each week from a myriad of publications and I've found many good ones that way. The New York Times Sunday Magazine always has interesting recipes too. I found the best tuna salad recipe (of all things) that way.

Right now I get Cooking Light and Food & Wine. I am much more likely to cook out of Cooking Light because the recipes are usually quick and easy and they provide nutrition information. Food & Wine is more for fun than for practical purposes. I'd like to start getting Cooks' Illustrated - I love how they "road test" everything from recipes to cooking equipment.

I have a subscription to Cooking Light Magazine. I love the magazine and all their yearly cookbooks. When I can I pick up Everyday Food at the grocery store. I also pick up Rachel Ray's Magazine on occasion. It seems to sell out fast. I used to purchase the Pillsbury cookbooks at the store as well. My favorite one is called Slow Cooker Meals that came out in January of 2004. The best recipes!

I read Cooks Illustrated and Sunset fairly regularly but seldom try their recipes. I think they just remind me of things I like to make, my way. Recently, I have been very irritated by Cooks tendency to push books and another magazine. I'd like to find the time to cancel all my relationships with them.

The best-edited, and most enjoyable, cooking magazine that I get now, I think, is {Food & Wine}. After a couple of years subscribing, it continues to hold my interest. The recipes are well-tested and are usually of things that I would actually eat.

{Saveur} is the "hip little brother" of a cooking magazine. If it were a person, it would have one earring and a few tattoos. I like it pretty much, but it grates on me for its attempted hipness sometimes. I like that it covers non-Western cuisines, even though it's often from a Western perspective.

{Cook's Illustrated} is irritating to me. With all due respect to the editor and the cooks who contribute, who are clearly competent cooks, I find the style and the writing dorky. Admittedly, I have used their recipes with great success and I love the back covers.

{Bon Appetit} is my least favorite of the ones I currently get. I usually tremendously dislike the food they present, and the recipes do not always seem well-tested. But {Bon Appetit} has an amazing list of contributing editors and authors (like Paula Wolfert), and I love to read what they have to say.

I am a charter member of {Fine Cooking} (a gift to myself for getting through library school--this will date me just so), and it continues to be interesting. The recipes are well-tested and are often of things I would actually make. It is a cooking magazine and nothing more, sometimes which I find refreshing, and sometimes which I find limited. The editing indicates a kind of conservatism, which is something I don't like about it (they never mention sustainability or conservation in any way, for example). However, being a charter member, I save these, in the slip cases they offer.

I have just started getting {Everyday Food} and I can tell that I won't love it. I will use it some, but it won't become a favorite. Not exactly sure why. I really admire Martha Stewart's work, but her publications lack pictures of PEOPLE, and who knew that would bug me so much?

I read all of these each month, cover to cover, (except {Cooks' Illustrated}, which I no longer get), but I only save {Fine Cooking}, and pages out of some of the others.

With also due respect to the person who posted, above, who likes the recipes from {Real Simple}, I find their recipes abominable. I can't even leaf through a {Real Simple} magazine without cringing at everything. But that's just me. I know it's popular. So it goes.

Boy, do I agree with you re Real Simple. I thought it was just me.

>26 sgardner:, Thanks for posting your thoughts on a number of cooking mags. I have recently let a lot of my subscriptions lapse and when I think about picking them up again, I will definitely refer to your post. :)

Re Real Simple, my complaint about the magazine is not so much about the recipes, which I have never used, but about the magazine itself. It is one big ad - all in the name of simplifying your life! I think their product tests are a useful idea - although I have never actually used and liked any of their top recommended products! - but most of that information is available online for free. I discovered this only after subscribing, of course. :0 I doubt I will renew again.

I agree with #20 - EatingWell is my absolute favorite cooking publication. I look forward to each issue since I know that I will get quite a few new recipes to try that are good for me and tasty too! EatingWell Serves Two: 150 Healthy in a Hurry Suppers is great for people who are well, just cooking for 2.

Being an 'Ozzy' I subscibe to 'Delicious' and also buy 'Cuisine' and 'Dish' from New Zealand. All are very well put together with articles from all the well know Celeb Chefs and lots of local info on events and produce. Back in the 80's in England I used to get a magazine called 'Chef' which featured British chefs and food.

I consistantly buy BBC Good Food. I clip a lot of recipes, and actually make them. There was a bacon and blue cheese tart recently that all three of us really liked (Husband and 16 year old son). And a wonderful recipe for Indian-spiced roast potatoes in a Patak Diwali add.

Eating Well is good. I have often driven past their offices in Vermont when visiting my sister. I like the emphasis on healthy food that also tastes good.

Cook's Illustrated I don't buy anymore. I got so fed up after they totally mangled two Austrian desserts. The crust of Apfel Strudel is SUPPOSED to be crumbly and fall apart. And putting sugar in between to glue it together is going to make the whole thing horribly sweet. Their first Linzer torte dough was tough because they insisted on rolling the dough out. Any Austrian housewife would spread the bottom dough in the pan with her fingers, and make snakes for the top lattice. That way you don't add too much flour, and get a yummy result. They went to all sorts of lengths to create a dough that they could roll.

I subscribed to Cooking Light when it first came out. Sad to say I really hated each and every thing I tried in their issues. I will take it on faith that it is (much) better now.

While I've never subscribed to Bon Appetit, I had regular access to the magazine and founds some real jewels there.

I did subscribe to Taste of Home (or was given it). The Christmas cookies in one issue were to die for! With extended family in Iowa and living overseas, mostly I just enjoyed the country flavor.

I grew up reading Southern Living and enjoying recipes from there.

I do get the online newsletters from Martha Stewart and Epicurious. One thing I have to say about the Martha Stewart recipes is that I have never, I mean never, had one fail. I'm not thrilled about her personally, but her recipes you can take to the bank.

Just found this wonderful group....I am a cookbook collector and user, altho I tend to use both cookbooks and mags for inspiration rather to follow recipes slavishly (I was taught to cook by an Italian Nona who couldn't read and just threw in a little of this and a lot of that)

My favorite all time cooking mag is Eating Well, followed by Cooking Light. I had subscriptions to just about everything everyone has mentioned above, and found them either way too ostentatious, too ad-filled, or just plain 'not for my demographic' as my grown kids like to tell me.

Welcome tutu :)

The Art of Eating is a really terrific publication, goes into great depth about an ingredient or a dish or type of cuisine; it has no ads; and it is a quarterly so one can actually keep up with it. My husband gets Gourmet, and I guess I would call it food porn though I have made a few things from it and they've generally been good. I used to get Cook's Illustrated but found it tedious after a while, though I did like the fact that it has no ads in it.

Just found this group and love it. I've been reading the threads for a couple hours; good stuff.
I don't subscribe to any cooking magazines but occasionally I'll pick one up at the newsstand if I see a recipe or article I find interesting. The magazine I liked best was Fine Cooking, I used a recipe for a hoisin based sauce for some BBQ ribs that turned out great.

I'm currently receiving Gourmet through a free subscription, and I doubt I'd pay for it--as Tututhefirst so eloquently put it, it's not for my demographic. I'm actually rather annoyed by the email newsletters that go on about some rare but wonderful ingredient you can get for $60 an ounce or whatever--seriously, how many people live like that? I look at a lot of online sites--favorites are epicurious.com (especially because of all the reviews by real cooks who make suggestions on how to improve the recipes), cooks.com (lots of overly-simplified recipes, but basic ingredients that give me a start to go on), and the Williams Sonoma site (wonderful coconut lime curd cake from there).

I realized when I was cataloging my cookbooks on LT that it's a completely different experience to browse though a cookbook and happen on a recipe I want to try than to go to a website looking for something I already have in mind. Both useful, just different.

Hi mikevail! Glad to have you join us. :)

I'm another Bon Appetit subscriber - at first I didn't think I'd like the new design change, but I've come to appreciate it. The Texas Beef Brisket Chile recipe did win me over...

I do have a subscription to Sauveur I got as a gift as well. And I always have Martha Stewart. I wish I had half the time to do everything her staff does for her every month!

I'm reviving this topic because I have found Overdrive/Libby's magazine collection perfect for indulging in my recipe magazine obsession. Libraries have to subscribe to the module, of course. Also, there's a 3-year rolling backlist of issues for most of the magazines -- so don't get too excited about trying to find that 1969 issue of Your Favorite Magazine. Titles I know I have borrowed:

Bon Appétit
Cooking Light
Cook's Illustrated
Cook's Country

Even better, the magazines don't count against your borrowing limits.